Peterlee

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Template:Infobox England place with map Peterlee is a new town in County Durham, England. Founded in 1948, the town is named after Peter Lee, a prominent local miner, and originally mostly housed coal miners. A notable building in the town is the Apollo Pavilion also known as the 'Pasmore Pavilion' after its designer Victor Pasmore, which has in recent times fallen into disrepair. Some local residents are now petitioning the council to have it demolished, citing it as an eyesore. Locals also refer to the Pavilion as 'the Monstrosity'.

1 General Information
2 Schools and Colleges
3 External links
- 3.1 Government
- 3.2 Schools

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General Information

Peterlee is unique among the new towns which came into being after the Second World War in that it was the only one requested by the people through their political representatives. A deputation, mostly if not all working miners from the Easington District Council, met with the Minister of Town and Country Planning after the second world war to put the case for a new town in the district. The minister John Silkin responded by offering a half size new town of 30,000 residents. Subsequently, they came largely from the surrounding villages in the district of Easington, itself a pit village.

The Peterlee Development Corporation was established in 1948 under the direction of A V Williams. The original masterplan by Berthold Lubetkin was rejected. In a bold move Williams invited an artist Victor Pasmore to be head of the design team. The pavilion was completed in 1970 at centre of the Sunny Blunts estate and was named for the Apollo Space Programme. As well as a visual focus the structure acted as a bridge across a small lake. However the structure became a meeting point for local youths and was soon defaced with graffiti. In mid-1980s Pasmore agreed to the connecting stairs being removed.

In 1975, Artist Placement Group had contacted new towns to set up the terms for artists to propose projects . The Development Corporation of Peterlee New Town responded and in 1976, Stuart Brisley was apponted. The project contained three distinct parts:

to develop an ongoing process of collecting and diseminating information under the title History Within Living Memory
to establish a publicly available history of the Development Corporation made in association with the Sociology Dept of the University of Durham
to introduce a community workshop which began in 1977

More information on The Peterlee Project can be found on its web site.

On the 29th January 2005, the celebrated north-east band Joe Byrne played a gig in aid of Tsunami relief at East Durham and Houghall Community College.

Since 1981, Peterlee has a town-twinning with the German town of Nordenham on the river Weser in Lower Saxony opposite to Bremerhaven.

Famous residents that lived in Peterlee during the 1970's include The Krankies and Roy Walker, the original presenter of Catchphrase.

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